We're number 16!

The worst part about being a philosopher on the job market is, you know, looking for a job. It sucks, fer sure. I complain as much as anyone. But hey, being a philosopher is otherwise pretty groovy. You get to think about stuff that's fun to think about. You get to teach stuff that's fun to teach. You get to more or less make your own hours. You get summers off. (Apparently this is a controversial claim. I'll revise it.) If you're a teacher, you get part of the summer off from your normal teaching duties to devote to your own research. (If you're in a lot of other jobs, you don' t get anything like this.) You get to stay in college forever. We're in a pretty safe work environment. No toxic waste, no crushed limbs. My biggest job-related problem today was dealing with a something in a paper that has already been accepted for publication. It could be worse.

CareerCast.com says here in their annual ranking that philosopher is the 16th best job. Surgeons are a lowly 100. Yeah, they make ten times as much money, but they have to get up at the crack of dawn, and apparently it's a really stressful job being elbow-deep in blood 'n guts. A roustabout makes half as much as a junior philosopher, and it's apparently the worst job. So, looking at some of the jobs that ranked pretty low on the list, I realized that I know quite a few people who have those jobs. My dad had one of those jobs, and I don't remember him ever complaining about it. And I reckon my dad would be happy that my job is in the top 20.

Just sayin'.

~zombie